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Onboard raid or separate raid card??

S

SWT4ai

Member
I was wondering which one gives the best performance on raid 0. I have an Asus P4S800d-e deluxe that has onboard raid. Will a separate raid card give a better performance overall over the onboard raid?? I have 2 hitachi 180gb PATA hard drives that I want to put on raid 0. I remember reading somewhere that raid 0 is best when the 2 hard drives are on different channels. The raid on the asus mobo only has the option of putting both PATA hard drives on one ide cable. Anyone know which raid cards provide the best performance??? I have a raid card, but it only supports up to 132gb.... I would be losing about 80gb total if I were to use the raid card that I have right now.
 
Unless you get a hardware RAID card (with own processor+ memory= expensive), there is no difference. If you use the onboard or get a separate software RAID card (= CPU used for parity data) the speed will be roughly the same/ depending on the chip used.
 
Originally posted by: DaFinn
Unless you get a hardware RAID card (with own processor+ memory= expensive), there is no difference. If you use the onboard or get a separate software RAID card (= CPU used for parity data) the speed will be roughly the same/ depending on the chip used.
Click to expand...

Can you suggest any good hardware based raid cards out there?

 
I don't know the answer to this but I was wondering if there are any onboard raid solutions which bypass the PCI bus and thus would leave more system bandwidth available.
 
Originally posted by: AIWGuru
I don't know the answer to this but I was wondering if there are any onboard raid solutions which bypass the PCI bus and thus would leave more system bandwidth available.
Click to expand...

Only one is the SATA raid build in to the ICH5R souhtbridge on new Intel chipsets (865/875 + ICH5R)
 
Someone else here mentioned that it is best to always use a separate RAID card, because if you want to move your RAID setup to another machine, you might be in for a backup/reformat/ restore process if you use the integrated RAID.
I think LSI, Adaptec and 3ware have hardware IDE RAID - possibly Promise and HighPoint too. storagereview.com did a review some time back.
.bh.
 
For a 2 drive ATA RAID 0 array, there is no reason to throw money away on a hardware solution that won't perform any better. Any dirt cheap software ATA RAID card will perform fine.
 
I have 4 drives in raid0 on my onboard promise control on an Asus SK8V, and it works great. Two of the drives are serial and two of the drives are parallel, does that sound like a jerry rig or what.

It can maintain 110mb/sec sequential read, and holds its own in the sandra suite.. Not exactly awesome for a 4drive array, but it is fast and im using what i got..

my 2cents..
 
Originally posted by: DaFinn
Unless you get a hardware RAID card (with own processor+ memory= expensive), there is no difference. If you use the onboard or get a separate software RAID card (= CPU used for parity data) the speed will be roughly the same/ depending on the chip used.
Click to expand...


Thats totally wrong. Yes, it is ideal to have a hardware controller, but even with two drives on most any onboard raid controller in raid0, you will see a substantial increase in performance.

My suggestion is, if you are looking for a little extra speed, and you only want to have 2 drives in an array, the onboard controller is fine. If you want more, you should prolly think about a dedicated raid controller.
 
Also, I dont think there is any need for on a card with dedicated ram for the array unless you plan on having parity on every drive..
 
Couple of benefits from using a PCI card Raid controller.

1) If your MB goes bad and you have to send it back, you loose the Raid controller, and all of the data that was on those drives.

2) Most PCI cards have more configuration options than on-board controllers even from the same manufacturer. Promise for example uses a lite version for it's on-board raid controller.
 
Originally posted by: synapse02
Originally posted by: DaFinn
Unless you get a hardware RAID card (with own processor+ memory= expensive), there is no difference. If you use the onboard or get a separate software RAID card (= CPU used for parity data) the speed will be roughly the same/ depending on the chip used.
Click to expand...


Thats totally wrong. Yes, it is ideal to have a hardware controller, but even with two drives on most any onboard raid controller in raid0, you will see a substantial increase in performance.

My suggestion is, if you are looking for a little extra speed, and you only want to have 2 drives in an array, the onboard controller is fine. If you want more, you should prolly think about a dedicated raid controller.
Click to expand...

Uhh, what's wrong with that??? Please read it again. He is askin if separate card vs. onboard have any difference, and I say NO unless he gets a HW adapter!
 
Originally posted by: AIWGuru
I don't know the answer to this but I was wondering if there are any onboard raid solutions which bypass the PCI bus and thus would leave more system bandwidth available.
Click to expand...

do they exist? yes. adaptec makes them, but I've only seen the input slots for the non-PCI cards on server motherboards.
 
I use one of these and am quite pleased with it.
It is imho, noticeably faster than any on-board chip I've seen/used (and I've seen'um/used'um all). You may also want to convert to sata asap 😉
 
Can anyone confirm whether or not the P4S800D-E Deluxe on board sata controllers (sis964/sis180) DO use the PCI bus? Perhaps even point me in the direction of some documentation to that effect?

Thank you very much!
Rob
 
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